backpacking

Talk about some more of a day. Today was that day! I woke up around 6:30 and got ready. Boiled some water in a hurry for coffee and oatmeal. Yeah I was a little excited to go to Yosemite.

The drive to Yosemite was rather fun with all the twists and turns. I ran into a little construction along the way that held up my progress some. I still got to the parking area for my trail around 10:30 or so. I set out with 4 liters of water, a mountain house meal, peanut butter and crackers. Well and a few other things but that’s the main stuff I cared about. LOL!

I planned to hike the Yosemite Valley Loop trail. Which I did and then some. The trail is around 13 miles but several parts of it aren’t marked very well. So I may or may not have hiked a couple extra miles out of the way. HA! It was all worth it though. The views along this trails and in the park in general are indescribable. Looking at these pictures now as I upload them doesn’t even compare to standing there in front of the sights.

This loop trail is really just a combination of several smaller trails. It was interesting along the way. At times I would be in the middle of a very dense wooded area then to an open field. Some of the trails went through areas of huge rocks while others went across sandy river banks. Yeah I felt like my hike may have been a little bipolar. HA!

There was so much wildlife too. I tried to take pictures of most of it but some of the little guys scampered off before I could get my phone out. The squirrels and deer though seemed to not mind at all. One little gray squirrel almost came up to me while I was sitting down eating lunch. Shoot and a deer was chilling beside the road eating. Too bad I didn’t see a bear. Oh and the mules!!! I kept seeing what I thought was horse poop everywhere along the trails. Well a few miles later I run into the culprit…. About 15 mules. I guess you could get a guided tour of the trails while riding a mule. Seems neat but I prefer my two feet. Well that’s what I thought at the time. Towards the end of the hike I would have rode on anything.

Man this was a long hike. Totally worth it though. Towards the end I was really feeling it. With about 3 miles left to go I said hey I need a break. I walked down to a river bank and cooked dinner. While chilling and eating a few guys came up and said man that’s so cool that you just boiled your water and made your food. After talking for 0.2 seconds they figured out I wasn’t from California. I told them I was from Kentucky and they thought it was the best thing ever to go on a road trip around the states. They wished me safe travels and off they went. I finished dinner and headed on out for my last 3 miles.

Those last 3 miles were probably the hardest 3 miles I’ve ever hiked. No clue as to why either. Maybe it was the fact that I was pushing 15 miles, the elevation, I was hiking alone, the heat….. OR ALL OF THE ABOVE. The crazy thing is as I’m typing this I’d do it again. Well the blisters on my feet are saying otherwise but hey they will get over it… right?

Oh and did I mention I figured out how to get a free guided tour? On the way out I got behind a guided tour thing. So I turned off the Sirius XM to listen in. Very informative! I almost felt guilty and wanted to tip the guy for doing such a good job. HA!

Well back to my dinner, top ramen and tuna. Yeah I’m a fat kid and eating again. I need to replenish my calories, right? Enjoy the pictures and be sure to look at all of them.